Playback

When a group of film students attempt to document the brutal history of their town's past, they unleash the evil spirit which inspired the rampage and must stop it's current rampage before it exposes the secret behind it's existence.

This is overall a pretty lame and barely worthwhile effort. The only true sense of credit that this one really has is it's plot line about the body-hopping spirit that can only be transfered through video, which is pretty creepy and doesn't get used often-enough as a concept since it generates some really impressive moments here and there of the possessed beings out and about with their unknowing victims. Otherwise, this here is a gory, low-budget boring mess that seems to fling itself around in ten different directions without any sort of inner compass to determine what it wants to do, a low-budget feel that never lets it's full scope become apparent despite the feel it's going for and a laid-back pace that rarely lets on it's a horror film and never really goes for any sort of excitement or enjoyability. A true let-down and not really worth it.

Rated R: Graphic Language, Graphic Violence, Nudity and underage drinking.

Ill start off by saying,if your the kind of person that's always looking for connections in movies(Most people on IMDb who think their intelligent, but just young) then you may not like this one, but if your old school like me and have seen everything already and don't care too much if movies draw slim similarities to others as long as they're good then I would say have at it.

There's some great gore, naked girls, and a twisted little story line that doesn't steal 'too' much from other movies, but taking just enough to get the troll's panties in a bunch. The similarities are sparse, trust me.

What really bugs me is not one of the fake reviewers, the "Changed my life" review along with the griper who yells at people with fake reviews(due to only one review history) when he himself is a shill. And thats the flaw in IMDb voting system. The fact that any nitwit can make multiple accounts and trash any movie before it even has a chance to get out there. This makes even more stupid people run around saying, "Oh yeah I heard that movie sucked!"

Well, I actually SAW this last night, I was expecting nothing good after reading reviews here. I have to say was surprised with the movie's pace, acting, and GORE! Storyline, Basically 15 years ago a kid murders his family. Fast forward to today and another kid decides to unravel the mystery for a school paper. Yes it has that familiar sound, but no this is no "The Ring part whatever". This borrows from a few movies while keeping its own individual style. We have Christian Slater playing an "interesting" part to say the least along with a creepy kid who likes to go through old film in his spare time. Again sounds like Chinese Ghost stuff, but this actually has Gore, Nudity, things Chinese cinema lacks. Basically it earns its R rating which means a lot to me in Horror.

I for one will admit that this will win no awards, nor will it become a big block buster. Its a genre movie aimed at genre fans. Nothing too great, but not bad at all either..

I gave it 7 out of 10 because of the sh%*storm of idiots who will undoubtedly ruin the rating/reviews of this movie(as they do to so many) all because one person left a good review before everyone else did so everyone assumes there part of the crew and its their duty to make 3 accounts and post fake reviews..how sad peoples lives must be. In reality this movie is a Solid 6.

Another thing, don't run out and buy this, wait till its on cable or Netflix.Its worth a watch when you put it up against the crap that true Horror fans have to sift through to get a decent watch, but its not a must see.

I don't usually do this, but some of you might stumble upon a review by IMDb username tlsmith-569-716188 as the visible review on this film's page. Aside from mistaking Christian Slater for Christian Bale, it's obviously biased and written by either someone who took part in the making of this film, or someone to related to such a person. Do your part and click "no". We deserve more integrity.

Having said that, let's get back to "Playback". I must say that while I did enjoy watching it, I couldn't help but finding the screenplay and story lacking. The idea is nice while not all that original (The Ring has already given us "evil from a videotape" and this was simply too similar), but the twist was too obvious and predictable. A good plot twist is one where the balance between the hints given and the element of surprise upon the discovery is kept. In this case - the hints were too thick, and the surprise was gone. That might be because I'm a Horror freak and have watched many Horror and Thriller films, but I can't help but expect more.

The second thing, which was really sad for me, was Christian Slater's roll. Oh my, how the great ones have fallen and been humbled to a shady background role of a semi-pedophile creep. I'd hate to think that after his illustrious career Slater has been degraded to his role here. Depressing.

However, while not being the best film ever, Playback is far from being bad. The effects and cinematography were very impressive, the original indie-rock soundtrack was great and is in my opinion good enough to purchase if available, and the way some of the scenes shot by the kids in the movie end up realized by the killer was very nice. But the best thing about this film is for sure Toby Hemingway's acting (and a great job by the make-up department). Hemingway was superb, and I look forward to seeing him in other films!

All in all, like I've mentioned, Playback wasn't the best film ever, nor the worst. It had its moment, and while it could have been a lot better - it could have been a lot worse too. I personally rate it a 6, but recommend that you give it a shot.

This is a low budget genre flick that has countless flaws but also a rather interesting story and a decent payoff. You could tell that the budget was not very high which honestly kind of drags the movies watching experience down. The acting is okayish and the effects are somewhere between good and pretty bad at times. The movie definitely borrows some material from other more famous flicks but never straight up copies anything and tries to be its own twisted little story. Overall it's decent and if the plot synopsis sounds interesting to you, you might enjoy this, however don't expect something great out of this because it is not. [4,7/10]

I'm a humongous horror fan. Hostel and Saw are amazing. So when I saw this at family video, I thought why not? I absolutely love Johnny Pacar, so I knew it had to be decent, right?

Right I was! The acting is solid, the gore is realistic, and the plot twists are believable. I read all the reviews beforehand and expected a stinker, but do NOT read most of the reviews. They're either making fun or they were expecting something else.

Yes, there are plot holes. Yes, the ending is predictable. But it's fun, it made me jump a couple times, and the gore doesn't look ridiculously fake like most B movies!

Will I watch it again? Heck yeah! Will I buy it? Possibly. Do I recommend it? Absolutely.